Learning to live life abundantly–as we are blessed to be a blessing…

where do you find beauty?

I was out taking a walk the other day. It was between 60 and 70 degrees, kind of windy and overcast—a pretty typical spring day. I had been admiring all of the lawns around the neighborhood and wondering why some are greener than others? And then I noticed in one of my flower beds, a stand of dandelions in all of their glory. They looked healthier than anything else surrounding them as my little baby mums were struggling to push their necks between the overpowering yellow heads of dandelions. I was a bit irritated to say the least. I went to try and pull them, but couldn’t really pull them without pulling the newly emerging mums from the ground. It takes absolutely nothing to get dandelions to grow nice and hearty, does it?

Then I walked across the street into the park. We are beyond blessed to look out our front door and feel like we are back living in the country. We built a house and moved into town exactly 4 years ago. One of the hardest decisions we’ve made, Steve and I do not regret it. Wonderful neighbors and neighbor kids, a convenient location for our very many trips to and from school and activities ( I can’t imagine driving back and forth from our old house), and definitely an easier “upkeep” of our home. Still, I sometimes get that tug at the heart for the life we once knew way out on 96th street. Where we weren’t even in the Moundridge school district, but when you have FOUR kids, that doesn’t matter—ha!

I looked across the park that day and saw dandelions. EVERYWHERE. And I kept looking at them. Have you ever really looked at them? When we lived in the country we planted all new grass and put in a sprinkler system in one area. Steve prided himself on getting nice grass to grow and spent hours mowing, weeding and watering. As I again looked at those pesky dandelions, I remembered one of the most precious things Natalie said as a little 3 year old one spring. “Look, Mommy! Those pretty little flowers look like Easter eggs sprinkled all over the grass!” Those very obnoxious flowers that Steve cussed turned beautiful in her words of an innocent little girl admiring God’s creation. Those memories are so sweet. We have so much to learn from sweet children, don’t we? To appreciate and look at things in a new way. I am so thankful for memories. So thankful, in fact, that I had to get a picture to document that memory that flooded my mind just the other day…

And as precious as that memory was, Landon and Kourtney helped give a new perspective on the spring ice storm of the last couple of days. I took them to drive around yesterday after school to look at the trees. It was devastating to see some of the pear trees (Kourt’s favorite tree ever) as they were split down the middle. The evergreens looked “sad” she said as they bowed to the ground with the weight of ice on the branches. Then, this morning as the sun shined through the trees I heard someone on the radio talk about the “glassy” trees. Yes! What a perfect description. Just beautiful. And then as we looked into the park where just a day before I had taken pictures of the dandelions, we saw the brush and grasses covered in ice and Landon proclaimed “that grass looks like it got it’s hair spiked!”

With that, instead of admiring beauty, I had to laugh. That, my friends, is exactly Landon’s personality. I should have gotten a picture.